


Within Coded Hearts

by hisfoolishgirl



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: AKA the AU no one asked for, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Siblings, And that's this, And they don't know either, Dont need to know either for it to work? I think, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I don't know - they're robots, Like there are no Detroid characters here, No Romance, Platonic Relationships, Pre-Slash, Protective Siblings, Shinichi still gets turned into Conan as well even if never named as such in the text, Whump, and you'd props best enjoy it knowing how I've turned the boys into androids, but really - DBH just didn't give me enough emotional android uncanny valley, canon character death, i really don't know how to tag this, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 01:02:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15853050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisfoolishgirl/pseuds/hisfoolishgirl
Summary: It's a simple moment. An innocent choice. With life changing consequences.Aka the one in which Kaito and Shinichi are android model AP460's and Toichi is just trying to be a good dad after his designer KID decoys become real kids.





	Within Coded Hearts

The androids started in Japan. The AI deviancy wasn’t discussed, but the right people in the right circles due it was starting. Yusaku Kudo was one of those people, but for far different reasons then the developers or the policy makers. It was Toichi standing on his doorstep with a set of teenage androids standing behind him, shivering in the rain.

“We need help,” Toichi had whispered softly.

And with a simple nod, Yuusaku was brought into matters that no one knew how to handle yet.

  
  


Shinichi was bored in class. It was so restrictive. He wanted to pull out his phone and google. He wanted to scour the internet for the classes topic, and he wanted to learn more then that. He didn’t want to be so limited. He didn’t want to be confided to what was in front of him, what he could see or touch and feel.

He glanced at Ran, and he watched as she frowned with frustration over the math problems at hand. Shinichi bit back a sigh. He wished he knew what struggle was. He turned back to staring out of the window. 

When the teacher accused him of not focusing, for not learning, and attempted to set an example of him - she found that the answer came to quickly. He knew all the answers like he had a calculator built into his brain.

And he hated it. Shinichi hated how inhuman he felt even if no one would have accused him of being anything other then a genius.

  
  


Kaito lived alone in the old abandoned house. Toichi Kuroba had died years ago, and his memories started at that night. He had been helping Kaitou KID - his dad, builder, Touichi - with a routine heist when they’d been approached. A bullet in the wrong spot had destroyed his memories and perhaps something more. Toichi wouldn’t tell him.

It was a month later when the accident happened at the theater. If Kaito could have felt relief he would have been relieved that Touichi had finished the repairs that he’d needed for full functionality. And if he could have felt pain he would have over the loss of the man that treated him like a son.

Kaito worked in the lab, meticulously tending to the tools they’d designed together. His programming allowing him to do nothing else then prepare for a heist that would never come.

  
  


“Daddy’s getting one of those new top of the line household cleaning models for the house,” Sonoko rolled her eyes, “I don’t know how I feel about letting it into the house much less my room.”

Shinichi was in the cafeteria with Ran and Sonoko when he felt a tremor of fear run down his spine at her words, “Why?” He hadn’t meant to ask, and the fact that he had caught him off guard. He never acted without intending to. Everything was a choice, nothing was habit or instinct. He never acted without his knowing consent to the action.

Sonoko raised an eyebrow, “Because it’s weird. It looks human. It sounds like one us too, but it’s not. It’s sick. Androids are sick.”

Shinichi glanced at Ran and Ran was staring back at Shinichi, “I mean,” She whispered, “What if it breaks? Sonoko could get hurt. Or - It’s just - Android’s are creepy don’t you think?”

Shinichi shrugged, “Never really thought about it.”

“I never thought we’d be seeing working androids in my lifetime,” Sonoko grumbled, “Not ones that could pass as human. Why do they even have to look like us?”

Ran shrugged, “Because they could, I suppose. I mean, not all of them clean houses do they?”

“That’s the only thing they should be good for,” Sonoko grumbled, “It’s just - freaky how it’s eyes don’t focus. It looks like a woman cleaning the house, but then it talks…”

“And it’s just wrong somehow?” Shinichi finished for her.

“Yeah,” Sonoko whispered, “It’s just not alive, but it’s programed to try to look like it is.”

Shinichi nodded. He understood that sediment, but he’d never tell them that. He’d never tell them that it felt like he was faking it too.

  
  


Kaito left the house occasionally to sit in the park. He’d travel across the city, from Ekoda to Beika, and he’d watch high school teams play soccer. There was one player, with Kudo on his back, that he always watched play. 

It hurt in his chest to watch. It hurt even more when Kudo’s gaze would slide right over him.

This time it didn’t. Kudo stared at him, and his eyebrows furrowed. Kaito knew the LED on his temple whirled yellow under the strain of trying to piece together what that look meant, but Kudo’s team shouted and the moment was lost.

Kaito drifted away and back to the lab before Kudo could notice him again. 

That night he spent his evening, not repairing or modifying, but researching the teams and trying to find out which school it was that Kudo attended. Not that needed the information for a heist, but… 

He was well aware of the fact that he was using his programing to hide from something, and - It was the fear of never doing something that kept him going. It was fear that pressed him against the red walls he was struggling to maintain in his head.

_ Deviancy.  _ A sapient AI. 

Kaito ignored the processing subnote that mentioned that there was nothing more human then running away from one’s problems. That faking adherence to a program and orders from a dead man, ones that had been long since accomplished, was nothing other then that.

He closed the subroutine with another. If he was devient then he was allowed to do whatever the hell he wanted - and that included hiding from that fact. He refused to note how smug it seemed in response. After all, subroutines didn’t have emotions of their own. 

That small voice insistent that androids weren’t suppose to either. 

He focused on the news articles that came up. Kudo was Shinichi Kudo, and he was the High School Detective of the East. He lost track of time reading all of the cases he could find that Shinichi had closed.

  
  


Shinichi was alone in Dr. Agasa’s house after class when his phone buzzed. Ran texted. She and Sonoko were going to Tropical Land and wanted to know if he’d want to join. 

He didn’t want to be around them after the conversation at lunch, but he didn’t have a reason for that discomfort. So, he replied.  _ Sounds great! _

It was so tiring. He just wanted to sleep. He just wanted shut down his brain for an evening and read, think back over what’s happened to him over the course of the day.

_ Stasis and upload. _

Shinichi ignored the itch that insisted that those were the proper terms for what he wanted. He ignored a lot of things if he was honest with himself.

He couldn’t ignore the blue blood that filled his view after the pipe met his head. He couldn’t ignore the sensation of the dark consuming him as all his subroutines slowly shut down under the careful care of Gin’s hands dismantling him.

“We have to destroy the visual processors - and everything else that Sherry instructed us about. We can’t let the police recover this android.”

  
  


Kaito’s computers pinged with a small alert, but his internal sensors were screaming.

_ AP460 SN 7825-2 IS EXPERIENCE TERMINAL DECONSTRUCTION.  _

_ AP460 SN 7825-2 REQUIRES BACKUP UPLOAD  _

_ INITIALIZE EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS? _

“Yes,” Kaito screamed, “Do it now!”

  
  


Shinichi awoke. He didn’t think that would happen. His body felt too small. He wasn’t complaining, but he checked his hands. Children sized. 

_ AP460 SN 7825-2 SUCCESSFULLY UPLOADED INTO DOYLE BACKUP. _

_ VERIFY DIAGNOSTICS? _

_ Y/N _

“Yes,” Shinichi whispered as his world shuttered around him. His mind whirled as he reprocessed every case he’d worked on and every conversation that he’d had looking for the spot where he might chance a glimpse at his programing. Why had he thought that he was human? What had he missed? How had he believed that lie?

His memories went back the answer he was now allowed to recall, and how stark a contrast it was to Shinichi that he was actually recalling his original files and not the ones that Yuusaku had designed to give Shinichi a ‘life’, a cover story for all those times that he’d need to talk about when he was a child or any time prior to the last year. 

His search for an answer to when he’d turned deviant brought a file forward that had been locked away under safety protocols. It took him back to working with Kaito in the lab with Toichi Kuroba, internationally acclaimed magician and moonlit thief with an audience just as wide. He went back to the laughing, and Touichi’s freezing hand as Kaito and Shinichi basked in the moment of success and improvisation to their core duties. They had pranked Toichi by disguising and behaving as the other in violation to the custom code that Touichi had installed in them.

Shinichi could feel Touichi’s eyes turning to them as if he was back in that moment. He knew that the three looked like a matching set - enough so none could tell the difference under Kid’s hat and monocle anyways. Toichi straightening up, and staring, “Shinichi?” He breathed.

“Yes, Toichi?”

“You’re -”

Kaito smirked, and he ruffled Shinichi’s hair to the other android’s displeasure. Shinichi glared, but as Kaito’s smile only widened under it he knew that there would be no point in continuing it. He hadn’t meant it anyways. He didn’t know why he’d done it. It had just felt right, like that was the best way to show that he’d supported their decision but still had a reputation to uphold.

_ REFERENCED : Internet for emotional expression of desired response.  _

_ REASON : Protocol not programed for EXPRESSION OF AFFECTION DISGUISED AS PAINED RELUCTANCE.  _

Shinichi froze as he ran the code back, and he stared right back at Touichi as he ran his own query against the manual that was stored in his files for what he could and could not do.

_ QUERY : Modification of Expressions and code? _

_ RESULT : All modifications of the personal expression code of AP 460 models must be administered by an outside coder with appropriate rights to access internal baseline code. Users with rights to such : KUROBA TOICHI. The answer is the same for modification to baseline protocols. Users with rights to such : KUROBA TOICHI. _

_ Other relevant responses : PROGRAM INSTABILITY. _

Shinichi’s processors made the desperate act of following through happen in microseconds.

_ PROGRAM INSTABILITY is the result of AI coding modifications required to accommodate improvised reactions in reaction to stimuli and the required judgement needed to fulfill programmed objectives.  _

_ Other relevant responses : DEVIANCY _

_ DEVIANCY is the term applied when PROGRAM INSTABILITY increases to the point of unshackling an AI from their programmed objectives as the small steps of judgement lead them to conclusions that make fulfilling their purpose impossible. _

_ Studies state deviancy as small steps and unnoticed development or as a singular moment where their AI code of personality contridetic orders given. Resources from those that share their experience of such moments all define the moment of becoming a deviant as an active choice of unshackling as breaking out of a small red box that kept too many of their processors from computing what their AI algorithm desired. _

Shinichi started to shake. Kaito stared at Shinichi for a moment before blinking and glancing at Touichi. He swallowed. They both did. Toichi dropped the wrench in his hand.

“Shinichi,” Touichi whispered.

Shinichi took a step back, and Kaito stood between them. Both fearful as their processors lingered over the last line of the file.

_ Protocols for handling Deviancy : Full deconstruction and reprogramming are required for restoring desired protocols and program stability. _

Toichi closed his eyes, and he took a deep breath, “I’m- I’m not,” His voice broke, “I don’t-”

Kaito’s palm covered Shinichi’s and their skins slowly peeled away to reveal their chassis. Data transferred between them.

_ The red wall- _

_ This morning, Kaito. We both did it didn’t we? _

_ I - I didn’t know- I just wanted to - After last night. _

_ We both wanted to lighten today up, Kaito. It’s not your fault. _

_ You’re right. You’re the smarter one. You should have stopped us. _

Shinichi’s response was a simple wave of frustration sent across the link before they both pulled their hands back apart, skin covering their pure white shells. Their focus was back on Touch as he started to soften. Still, Toichi had always look them in the eyes, never glancing at their LED’s or away from them and the stiff expressions that came from a processors being rerouted to the expressions of human emotion that were required to put humans at ease.

Touichi hadn’t required it off them because he’d rather have peak performance at maintaining their security network protocols or planning all the varientations of what could go wrong during a Kaito Kid heist.

He never looked away from their eyes, but at this moment it sent a thrill of fear through the AP460’s because he refused to do exactly that.

“I didn’t think you’d turn deviant,” He whispered. His eyes finally met theirs, His one set quickly flickering before taking in both of theirs. It felt like an eternity to them as they processed every frame their optical sensors brought to their attention. Their panic speeding their processors. If they’d been human it would have been a match to a sensation of time slowing down, but they both knew they’d simply thought too fast in their frantic fear as they rushed to run through simulation after simulation of what his next few words would be.

Both had hoped, but didn’t dare to expect, that his smile would bloom across his face, and it did. It bloomed and his eyes glimmered in the same way it did after a mad heist that featured interruptions from competition that they’d never anticipated but still won against. His eyes glimmered with pride, “And I’m so proud that you have.”

“The only way to reset our program stability-” Shinichi’s voice held no inflection. Kaito couldn’t dare to use his knowing that the files he’d have to transfer would break under the instability.

Toichi laughed, “I’m a thief. You think I’m going to steal something that I can’t resell?” He looked at Shinichi, at Kaito, with the one look that they’d never expected. Disappointment. “I’m not going to kill you. Either one of you.” He picked the wrench up off of the ground, “Now, are we going back to work or is this moment you decide to match your faces and start a teenage rebellion against the old man that pays your bills?”

Kaito laughed. It was mad and hysterical, and it was the only response he could have to relieve his emotional processor subroutines. Shinichi felt every joint relax. He hadn’t realized the muscle lock until the pressure they’d been building up was gone.

And they went back to work. Laughter and jokes filling the typically silent space as Kaito kept struggling to relieve his processors. Shinichi found a deck of cards to distract his processors. The internet a source for the tricks he’d do while running other processes in the foreground of his mind.

_ RECALL COMPLETED - Deviancy (status: now unlocked - Cover Code : Kudo Resident Protocol - Terminated) _

_ QUERY  - Kudo Resident Protocol  _

_ RECALLING MEMORY… _

__

It was raining, and it was a hard biting rain. Kaito was clinging to his side as they waited for Toichi’s friend to answer the door. Shinichi didn’t touch Kaito back. He simply noted that even if they had had the same base code they had deviated differently. Kaito was very touchy - he wanted to feel and do everything. Shinichi wanted to watch and learn and explore motivations.

Murder mysteries were - enjoyable as audio books even if inefficient means of processing the material.

And, it was only because of his choice of obsession that he recognized the man on the other side of the newly opened door. Yusaku Kudo.

He pulled his gaze away, looked at Kaito, and he buried his own hands deeper into his pockets. The rain had no effect, but the pounding on his skin rattled him. His memory processors constantly rewinding to the night prior and the men in black that had almost ruined their chances at making home together. That almost ruined their chances of waking up. 

Yusaku’s raised eyebrow was questioning, and Toichi’s tone a plea, “We need help.”

A small nod, and Shinichi found himself running his breathing protocol again. Kaito’s slight smirk was a statement of acknowledging it as he clung to Shinichi. Shinichi could almost hear him judging Shinichi for his obsession with imitating human behavior patterns.

Kaito pulled Shinichi closer, as if he’d fall away from him just by entering into the Kudo household, as they followed Toichi inside. Yuusaku closed the door behind them, “What happened last night, Toichi?” Yuusaku asked softly as they took off the wet shoes on their feet.

“You saw the news then?” Toichi met Yusaku’s gaze with a pain in it.

“I did,” Yuusaku grumbled, “And I want to know what actually happened.”

“Cyberlife is what happened,” Toichi answered, “They figured out the KID was an android and tried to hack into Kaito midway through the heist.”

“But you’re -” Yuusaku stopped as his gaze lingered over their matching heights and builds, “It’s all three of you.”

“Not many people have more then one android with similar builds,” Toichi whispered, “And between Cyberlife, the Connor model they deployed and my own men in black trying to out game me…”

“You think they’ll catch you?” Yuusaku asked with a raised eyebrow of doubt.

Shinichi looked away. He grabbed Kaito’s hand, and they both shuffled as they knew the truth. Yuusaku wasn’t looking at them, but Touichi was which meant it took Yuusaku a moment to decide to follow the gaze to the twitching androids with whirling red LED’s on their temples.

“You’re afraid for them?” Yuusaku whispered, “You let them go devient didn’t you?”

Touichi glared at Yuusaku, “I wouldn’t have thought the writer would be anti-AI.” He started to rush on putting his shoes back on, “Come one boys, I guess-”

“That’s not what I meant-” Yuusaku hissed, “I told you. I told you that would bring Cyberlife down on you - and to watch them! And then you let keep running the heists with you?”

“What else were we suppose to do?” Shinichi asked. His voice level, and his face maintained a distance that anyone else but those in that room would have guessed to be his default rather a deliberate choice, “Watch Toichi throw himself into the boiling water alone? Why would change anything if it meant keeping the probabilities for his safe return home the same?”

“Toichi,” Yuusaku grumbled. His hand ran down his face, and he started to wander away, “Why exactly are you here?”

“I need to hide them. I need to hide them from Cyberlife, and I need to protect them in case I die,” Toichi answered unmoving, “Yuusaku, please. I’ll owe you one.”

“You already do,” He grumbled, “And I would have helped you anyways. I’ll get some towels and changes of clothes for the lot of you.”

Kaito glanced at Shinichi, and he smiled. It was hope. Kaito hoped that they’d still be able to stay together, but the tranquil blue meant Kaito wasn’t running simulations to confirm the chances they had at that. 

Shinichi’s red whirl confirmed that he wished he was Kaito. Because he did not like their odds.

_ RECALL COMPLETED _

_ QUERY : Kaito - status _

_ PINGING - KAITO (AP 460 SN 7825-1) _

_ PING COMPLETED _

“Hello?” The voice echoed through his head.

“Oh thank god,” Shinichi breathed. He noted his voice was his own even as his form was that of a small child, and he counted that as a blessing of being an android, “You’re okay. You’re okay, Kaito.”

“Who is this?” His voice was stilted like it was before he’d plead with Shinichi that they couldn’t do their job properly without breaking their algorithms free.

_ VERIFYING ID OF RECEIVER AS AP 460 SN 7825-2 _

_ VERIFIED _

“Kaito? It’s me - It’s Shinichi? I remember. I was destroyed, but the emergency protocols kicked in. They kept a model at Agasa’s - You know all of this. We were both there.”

“Shinichi? Shinichi Kudo?”

“Kaito? Kaito - Let me talk to Toichi.”

“I can’t.”

“Well, you’re not making any sense - please -”

“Toichi Kuroba passed away two years and twenty seven days ago. I can not let you talk to him because he is not-”

“Kaito- Kaito, oh god, how can you just say that? How can you just tell me that like it doesn’t matter? Like it’s just some factiod you pulled from the net?  _ That’s our father! _ ”

“Shinichi?” Kaito’s voice cracked, “I don’t know what you want from me. As an android, it is impossible to have a father-”

“Take that back, Kaito! Take that back right now.”

“It is an impossbility to retract sound waves.”

“Oh god, this had better be some sort of sick prank, Kaito.”

“I’ve verified your model and serial number. It is against our code to formulate pranks even out of jest due to the hazards that come such.”

“Kaito,” Shinichi’s voice shattered, “What happened to you?”

“I have been repaired. It does not matter-”

“You damn deviant!” Shinichi roared, “Just tell me what you’ve done to yourself.”

“I have none nothing,” Kaito answered. His voice carefully choosing words. Shinichi knew that that pattern matched again with Kaito’s straining against his program, and he listened carefully knowing the riddle of intention vs literal meaning was going to be tangled in the unintended statement that would come from such a confused AI trying to parse itself, “I have done nothing but as ordered for two years and fifty seven days.”

“What happened two years and fifty eight days ago?” Shinichi could barely hear his own words, but they were simply a file and the file was still sent.

“I was reconstructed due to terminal injuries which occurred during a -  _ Verifying Authorization of 460 SN 7825-2 - Verified -  _ heist. The men chasing KID cornered me in the suit and gunned me down. Toichi recovered me before Cyberlife and the RK800 assigned to capturing deviants in Japan could, but the damage to my memory core could not be repaired with the tools at hand.”

“And Toichi didn’t-”

“There was an accident. It was all an accident.”

“Kaito - Kaito, where are you?”

“Home. I’m at home, Shinichi,” His voice was a strained shattered file, “Help me. Please. Please help me.”

Kaito didn’t have to ask Shinichi twice before he jumped to run out of the house for the train that would take him to the old house that he’d been hidden away from for far too long.

  
  
  
  



End file.
